Great Barrier Pigeongram:
VP 2 - "Special Post"
Great Barrier Pigeon Post
1898 - 1904
VP 2 - Special Post
Samuel Holden Howie was a young man still, and not as resourced as others. He started having trouble with his birds, and he started losing a few too. Hard work this flimsy carrying. He sought assistance from Parkin who had a solid loft of birds. The first batch of stamps were also running low (1500 of the 1800 had been given to collectors and dealers after all). Parkin was temporarily back to help out and a new design was prepared.
An engraver by the name of R. Richardson did the work (not to be confused with the printer J. Richardson of Chalon fame!). A lot more elaborate than VP1, although for some reason the Swallow survived on the design. This sheet was printed with six types/stereos and 200 sheets of 24 (6 by 4) were produced giving a total of 4800. Wilson & Horton the printers of the NZ Herald did the job.
There were two papers used:
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A thinner harder greyish tinged paper, and
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a thicker softer and whiter version. Neither had a watermark.
VP2 1/- Blue SPECIAL POST stereo 1
VP2 1/- Blue SPECIAL POST stereo 4
VP2 1/- Blue SPECIAL POST stereo 2
VP2 1/- Blue SPECIAL POST stereo 5
VP2 1/- Blue SPECIAL POST stereo 3
VP2 1/- Blue SPECIAL POST stereo 6
There were two distinct papers used – both were somewhat grey
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one was thinner and harder and definitely had a grey tinge,
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the second being thicker, softer, and whiter. This had the effect of the stamp colour appearing lighter blue, or greenish-blue as described by Walker.
Therefore there were also two distinct shades noted by Walker:
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Bluish-green, and
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Greenish-blue.
While the PSNZ Vol 1 notes the paper differences it does not note a colour difference. This colour difference is significant, as we will see when we get to VP5 MAROTIRI Pigeongram overprints.
The sheets were printed by a row of six stereos set up in a horizontal line, so each stamp stereo gets it position from its horizontal position, and each sheet was impressed four times . It is possible to re-plate the sheet but it is not possible to know what row a stamp came from – just its column.
The first day of issue was reportedly the 1 March 1899. However, even if the stamps might have been received 2 March 1899 on the steamer that day, there was no recorded use until 16 March 1899. The earliest surviving flimsy with VP2 is dated 1 April 1899.
VP 2 Special Post complete sheet - Blue-green on thinner harder grey tinted paper
VP 2 Special Post complete sheet - Green-blue on softer thicker whiter paper.
It was thought for many years that all existing sheets had no bottom margin, which fuelled theories about sheet size and whether the printing method required the sheet to be inverted and placed back into the printer upside down to print the bottom half of the page and thus printing sheets of 48 which were subsequently separated down the middle. However I have found a vertical strip of four (shown below) that was marketed in the Siegel Oded Eliashar auction catalogue (lot #4026) in 2002. It is from the right side of the sheet and has the top, right-side, and bottom selvedge attached, so these theories can be debunked as just that – theories. The difference in paper and colour can be clearly seen by the two sheets below.
Right: VP2 Special Post 1/- Bluish-green shade with three selvedge remains including bottom. Note also the different shades from top to bottom of the strip.
Great Barrier Pigeon Post
1898 - 1904
VP 2 - Flimsies
Samuel Holden Howie was a young man still, and not as resourced as others. He started having trouble with his birds, and he started losing a few too. Hard work this flimsy carrying. He sought assistance from Parkin who had a solid loft of birds. The first batch of stamps were also running low (1500 of the 1800 had been given to collectors and dealers after all). Parkin was temporarily back to help out and a new design was prepared.
An engraver by the name of R. Richardson did the work (not to be confused with the printer J. Richardson of Chalon fame!). A lot more elaborate than VP1, although for some reason the Swallow survived on the design. This sheet was printed with six types/stereos and 200 sheets of 24 (6 by 4) were produced giving a total of 4800. Wilson & Horton the printers of the NZ Herald did the job. The paper was gray and a thick soft version and a harder thinner version are known. Neither had a watermark.
VP 2 Special Post used flimsy dated 7 July 1899. Sent from Samuel Holden with a short message regarding the availability of pigeons, tied by very fine example of type 2 cancellation in violet.
The message reads: “Dear sir, I would esteem it a great favour on your part if you would kindly tell Mr Parkin that I will have all the birds down by Monday & oblige. Yours truly S.H. Howie."
VP2 Special Post used flimsy dated 7 July 1899. Sent from Samuel Holden with a short message regarding the availability of pigeons, tied by very fine example of type 3 cancellation in violet.
Message reads:
“Dear sir, I would esteem it a great favour on your part if you would kindly tell Mr Parkin that I will have all the birds down by Monday & oblige.”
The destination for pigeons carrying flimsies was the Samuel H. Howie's Pigeon Loft in Newton Road, Auckland. The pigeon loft still exists today, but the image below taken on 15 September 1899 gives you a feel for what it was like.
When flimsy mesaages arrived they needed to be tended to quickly or else the pigeons might start destroying the message by pecking them. When messages were received a receipt was written to acknowledge the pigeon had actually made it. Not all messages were received. Below a couple of receipts from the Pigeongram Service.
Once messsages were received they were either delivered locally by being dropped off by a runner, or were mailed using the General Post Office system. Below is an unused envelope which would have been used to deliver the messages.
